"If you don't get into bed," said Dink, "I'll rule you out."
Macnooder, thus admonished, hastened to his post, merely remarking on the distinction of his garters and impressionistic socks and the fact that he had incurred great expense to afford his schoolmates an equal opportunity.
"Are you ready?" said Turkey Reiter, for the indignant jury.
Macnooder, in bed, glanced carefully at the preparations without, turned on his side and brought his knees up under his chin.
With a circular kick, something like the flop of a whale's tail, Macnooder drove the covers from him and sprang into the doubled trousers.
"Time--twenty-seven seconds flat," said Dennis de Brian de Boru Finnegan. "Best yet. Twenty-seven and four-fifths seconds, next on the list, made by the White Mountain Canary and the Gutter Pup."
"Next contestant," said Dink, in sing-song, "is the champion of the Rouse, Mr. Peanuts Biddle."
"Please, sir," said the candidate, who as a freshman was visibly embarrassed at the ordeal before him--"Please, sir, I don't part my hair."
Every eye went to the pompadour, cropped like a scrubbing brush, and recognized the truth of this assertion.
"Please, sir, I don't see why I should have to touch a comb."
A protest broke forth from the other candidates.
"I always do that with my fingers when I'm skating down the stairs."
The jury retired to deliberate and announced amid cheers that to equalize matters Mr. Peanuts Biddle would be handicapped two-fifths of a second. The candidate took this ruling very much to heart and withdrew.
The Tennessee Shad, closing the list of entries, slouched up to the starting-line amid great excitement to better the record of Doc Macnooder.
He first inspected the washstand, filling the basin higher than customary and exchanging the stiff face towel for a soft bath towel, which would more quickly absorb the moisture.
Doc Macnooder, who followed these preparations with a hostile eye, protested against this last substitution, but was overruled.
The Tennessee Shad then divested himself of his coat and undergarments amid cries of:
Macnooder then claimed that the undershirt was manifestly sewed to the coat. The allegation was investigated and disproved, without in the slightest ruffling the composure of the Tennessee Shad, who continued his calculations while making a toothpick dance through his lips. By means of safety pins, he next fastened the back and one wing of his collar to his coat, so that one motion would clothe his upper half.